17.03.2021
Today Rajmani has been with us for two weeks and I definitely own you an update on him. In fact, I did a little assessment on him yesterday, thinking about how far we have come in the last fourteen days. While training a young horse, one should always have a plan and then go along with it step by step. I will talk about this topic in another post. So, let me share my thoughts on 14-days Rajmani with you:
Rajmani has definitely arrived, he is pretty much a part of the herd and though not all horses have accepted him completely, he shares their spaces, grazing and being alongside with them with just the bare minimum of tension. It took a while and it did not go 100% smoothly. In fact, both he and some of my mares have had bite marks, so there has been the occasional clash and argument, but no injuries bar the loss of some hairs and some tiny, superficial wounds. So, this went smoother and much faster than I expected given the fact that I introduced him to the herd on his fourth day being here.
He also started rolling and laying down at night in his paddock which is a good sign that a horse feels relaxed and comfortable.
He got much calmer. No more nervousness, no more not being able to stand still and much less nipping. That is definitely a change for the better. I can now tie him up on a loose rope and groom him, do his hooves, put on hoof shoes. That is nice. I also got to know him better, so I handle him with a lot of more ease than before. So, I guess it is a two-way road here. Me being more relaxed also causes him to be more relaxed, even though I am still on my guard as he nevertheless does the occasional nipping which is a little annoying but cannot be helped. He loves chewing on things and taking stuff in this mouth.
I can now leave him tied up for a little time while I get another horse or fetch my helmet. I did not dare doing that in the beginning, as he used to be constantly moving and fidgeting. Now he stands nicely and calmly.
Sometime he still twiddles around when I want to clean his hooves or put on hoof boots, but this is really down to a bare minimum for a young horse.
He has come to know horse boots on his front hooves which he readily accepted without much fuss. I have also started putting a saddle pad on his back, just for a few minutes. He was a little suspicious the first time and wanted to sniff it (it had been worn by one of the mares prior) before he let me put it on his back. Then he relaxed and just stood still. Next step will be the lunging girth, then the bareback pad before I will put a saddle on him. So still some targets to achieve.
Otherwise, he has known only halter and knot halter yet. I will also introduce him to the Caveçon eventually, but at the moment I prefer working him in the knot halter, so no rush. He knows the bit (they brought him with a bridle), but I don’t want to use one on him anytime soon. I usually start all my horses bitless and I intend to do this with him as well.
And almost forgotten, I used some mane spray on him which he was okay with. So, another item checked. Next will be the water hose. No idea if he has been washed before, although knowing India and Indian horse keeping, I suppose he has, so I don’t expect much issues here.
I have not done too much work with him yet. Mostly lead training, some ground work and ponying him along on rides. Nothing spectacular so far but trying to lay a solid basis for further training.
His leading has improved a lot. He keeps an eye out for me and is getting better at the stops. I train him inside the large paddock at the moment so he learns how to stop and back straight. I started doing trot and transitions from trot to halt which he does well. Now halt – trot transitions will be next and then we will try out canter at hand. But that will all take a bit of time and I am not rushing things.
I also introduced the concept of lunging, sending him out on a circle. On the right hand he does walk and trot nicely. On the left he sometimes stops and turns to face me still. It is his weaker hand, so we need to work on that.
I played the Seven Games with him, getting him used to all the basic concepts he needs in his future training. Not a lot of sideways yet, but he turns nicely and I can send his front and hind end around. So all clear on that front.
So far, I took him four times along on a ride. The first time was on the farm with Aisha, then I went outside with him three times more with different horses. He has done well. Once in a while he tries to bite the lead horse in her bum, but till now he has not succeeded and I think, it is more of a checking out, how far he can go than a real attempt to bite.
After our first ride outside, I decided to put horse boots on him, as he walked tenderly on our hard, rocky ground. I suppose he needs some time to adjust to it, but I don’t want to put shoes on him as yet, so the boots will need to do and he does great with them. The boots I use are the Equine Fusion jogging boots which I have in different sizes and which fit well to all our horses.
On the rides, I walk and trot and Rajmani comes along nicely. I give him the voice command and he usually respond well to it. We have done longer and longer rounds, starting with 5 km, than 6 km and finally 7 km with some serious climbing up and down the mountain side. He struggles a bit with the steep slopes, but it is a learning process and I always give him the day after the ride a rest, so he can mull about it and nurse his muscle aches, which he probably has.
He has so far met motorcycles, trucks, excavators, cows, buffalos, cars and people on foot. All of them he accepted, but he does not like people zooming past him on motorbikes. He does the strangest thing: He pins his ears back and jumps after them trying to bite them. After he did that for the second time, I make sure, I have a short rope when another one overtakes. The last one got the fright of his life, when Rajmani suddenly jumped at him. Fortunately, he was not hurt and after driving off quickly, he stopped a little ahead, waited and then smiled at me, pointing at my horse and said: “Naughty”. I had quite a laugh about that later.
That is one of the things I like about India, people are used to dealing with big animals on a daily base and they know that they can react in an odd way at times.
Summing up, all in all, I am satisfied, Rajmani has turned out as I expected, in fact better. None of the fears I had about him in the first place, like him jumping out of his stable, being bad with the mares or being unmanageable, have turned out true.
Yes, he is a naughty boy and needs a strict training, but he is not worse than you would expect from a horse of his age.